Researchers banding Piping Plovers use various colors of flags and different patterns of band colors that indicate where and by whom a plover was banded. Here is a list of most of the currently-used banding schemes, and email addresses to use for sending in observations. Don't worry. If you send an observation to a research group other than the one tracking that bird, it will be forwarded to the researchers who banded the plover you saw. You will hear back shortly about the history of "your" bird.  It is only important that you email any one or more of the research groups about the banded plover that you saw.